Out of the darkness
by Musicgirl xxx
Summary: ...and into the light. Natasha Romanoff was a name that was well known and feared but where was she now? Rate T for a bit of gore and language. New title and summary.
1. What's in a name?

Natasha Romanoff grabbed her uniform out of her cupboard and hurriedly struggled into the material as the alert sounded that her presence and skills were required. It was a battle she faced often but whilst barely awake, the task always seemed to be twice as hard and Natasha had to redress herself a couple of times as she put her arms and legs through the wrong holes. Assassin training didn't prepare you for the early morning battle with tight and difficult clothing. With skill and grace, despite being half asleep, she exited her bedroom, slipped into the room next to hers briefly before moving with some speed towards her kitchen.

Despite having been trained for things like this from an age that most people would consider way too young, she still hated the sudden early morning wake up calls with a passion. The incessant beeping that alerted her to the new situation made her want to shoot the source of the annoying noise for disturbing her but she knew there would be hell to pay if she destroyed any more technology and so she had to settle for cursing rapidly under her breath and slamming her hand down on the button to stop it with more force than required. They put her in a bad mood and she pitied anyone who got in her way on days when she had been woken up early and suddenly as they would have to face the full force of her sleep deprived wrath and that wasn't a pretty sight for anyone.

Luckily for her, her team were pretty used to it by now and so were well versed in ducking the occasional knife and ignoring her sniped comments. They knew by now that she rarely ever meant anything aimed at them during these moments and that, although she hated apologising and only used them occasionally when she had been particularly rude or insulting, she was sorry for anything she had said. It was also useful for them as criminal crumbled under her death glare and confessed everything frequently making their job so much easily.

She was a professional and despite having her sleep interrupted and cut way too short for her liking, and on her day off as well, she could continue, mainly on autopilot, with the same professionalism she used when fully awake and conscious. She was a trained assassin after all. She was, however, never fully functional until after at least one cup of coffee.

It was on days like this when she was racing out of the door like a hurricane, leaving a mess of papers, clothes and rubbish in her wake, that she was so thankful that the coffee maker was the quickest machine available and that she kept paper cups stacked up for emergencies such as this. There was, however, no time for her to make herself some toast so she grabbed a slice of bread instead along with her paper cup of coffee. Natasha only paused briefly to fight the locks off of her door and enable all her security features before rushing out the door mid bite contemplating what she had ahead of her today. She had one quick call to make which she managed to do on the way, one call that she couldn't forget.

Her job had left her surprised by next to nothing. Life as an assassin and then an avenger had showed her that no matter how improbable anything was, there was a chance it had been done, made or happened and that half the people behind the incidents were madmen or insane. She had also seen that ordinary people with normal jobs could do the worst things and that an open mind was required for all situations. At least all of this experience meant that very little fazed her.

As she approached the scene one thing was clear, while all this had shaped her, she was a different person now. Natasha Romanoff no longer existed, in her place a redheaded woman by the name of Catarina Todd, a New York police woman with a difference who knew there was more to life than what most people saw and believed in. Catarina stepped out of her unmarked car, straightened her police uniform and headed towards the police tape.

**This idea wouldn't stop bugging me and so I finally sat down and wrote it. The next chapters will go into more details about why she left and what the difference is. Natasha will be referred to as Catarina in general from now on unless the story is about before she split from the Avengers.**


	2. Meet the team

Previously :

_Catarina stepped out of her unmarked car, straightened her police uniform and headed towards the police tape._

Just as Catarina reached the tape that cordoned off an alley she felt a presence at her right side and tensed, her assassin training rearing its head, until the person spoke.

"Hey kitty Cat, your beauty sleep get interrupted as well?" came a voice she knew very well and she allowed herself to relax marginally as she turned angry eyes on her companion.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that dumbass?" she asked in mock anger. Whilst the nickname annoyed her, she couldn't deny it helped her feel like she fitted in better. It reminded her of the team of superheroes who annoyed her like it was a sport but, when it came down to it, had become her true family. It had been 5 years and she still missed them but her new team had become her family once again and it was comforting for Catarina to hear that.

"It's not me who needs my beauty sleep, JJ. When was the last time you looked in the mirror anyway?" Whilst she was joking, Cat was trying to save him some face. It was clear that he had raced out of bed as quickly as she had but, unlike her quick cursory check of her appearance, he clearly hadn't checked his image as his hair was sticking up at all angles and his shirt was buttoned up all wrong.

Cat ducked under the tape and tossed a pocket mirror to JJ as she went, before calling over her shoulder, "Check your buttons sleepyhead!" As she turned her attention to the scene in front of her, her first observation was that there was an overbearing smell of blood but her face was a blank mask, her assassin training coming in to play, and she showed no acknowledgement of the grizzly nature of the scene. There was blood everywhere, covering the walls and floor of the alley, and body parts littered the ground.

There were a few junior agents by the tape, monitoring who entered the scene and both looked to be slightly green faced and queasy from the smell and the sight, both having turned their backs a long time ago, not being able to face the sight. _Green agents again_, Cat thought as she glanced at them, _what is the captain trying to do to the new recruits, scare them off or something?_ Whilst she enjoyed terrorising and scaring the hell out of the new officers, even Cat knew they needed more recruits and scenes like this could cut numbers drastically. Sending a pitying glance to the baby officers she assessed the other people in the small space. There were three others, two with blank faces that mirrors Cat's own mask, the third, however, was the ME the team preferred but right now she looked ill. ME's faced grizzly scenes but even Cat could admit this one was bad, what with the smell and the look of it.

Cat assessed the area before making eye contact with the female blank faced officer and giving her conclusions. "Too much blood to be one but depending on the method of killing could be two or more. By the volume of blood and spatter on the walls that can be identified, I would say they were killed here. It's a dark alley so could be opportunistic ..." she paused.

"But what do you think Cat?" the other woman asked.

"I couldn't say for sure Luce, but if you want my opinion it was highly planned, in other words professional. Looks like the fingertips have been removed to reduce chances of identification and blood spatter looks controlled like the killers knew what they were doing. Volume of blood and location could have been to throw us off. Could have lured the victims here or bound and gagged them. Not a great neighbourhood and in the dark, people could have come and gone and no one would have noticed anything. Wouldn't say hit man or assassin, they don't try and throw the cops off their scent and mob often have a more specific method of revenge but wouldn't discount them yet. If I had to guess I'd say it was planned and the killer had some idea what they were doing but that it was also personal, lot of blood suggests the deaths were drawn out as revenge, and they've made a few mistakes."

"Now that we are all here," the other woman, Luce, said, "Let's get this scene cleared for the CSI's. Whilst they had all learnt the necessary skills and could have done the CSI's job at the scene, they had other work to do as well and their boss wanted them back at the office as soon as possible. The CSI team was reliable and well trusted so they could give the scene over to them with minimal grumbling and annoyance. They all did their own checks and marked areas of interest for the CSI's such as tire tracks in the mud and what looked like footprints in the blood pool. They helped the ME Samantha Keightley collect up all the body parts after the arrival of the CSI's and their photos in situ before heading back to the office.

The precinct they were based out of operated a little differently to most and that suited Catarina just fine. As an agent she had been devoted to work with little to no social life. Whilst that had worked in her favour as an agent, allowing her to ascend the ranks quickly, she had realised that there was more to life than all work. Her new life and family had allowed her to see the fun she had been missing, fun she had just started to experience with the Avengers, and now she was much more relaxed.

As their team was slightly different, they had their own office with their desks in but with fold back doors that they often propped open so as not to miss out on anything in the precinct. Office chair races, water fights, nerf gun battles, pranks, kids games and more were commonplace and Cat had come to the conclusion that you had to be at least partially insane to work there. She fitted right in.

As a precinct they scared off more new agents than any other in America and despite being lectured repeatedly about this, seemed quite proud of the title. In fact someone *cough*JJ*cough* had a plaque made with Best in the US for scaring of the newbies engraved on the wood and proudly mounted in the common area, above the coffee machine. Their boss, Captain Martin Lucas, was as insane as the rest of them and, rather than punish them for their childish antics, he encouraged them, saying it helped them to de-stress, and often was the instigator himself. There appeared to be some method to his madness, however, as his precinct seemed to have the highest pass rate for their mandatory psych evaluations and had the fewest instances of PTSD or mental illness that other precincts suffered with.

Catarina's team were the most insane in the building and that was saying a lot. Their senior agent was Lucy Casper but was known as Luce by the team, the whole team being quite casual, and Cat was their second in command although rank rarely ever came into it. It was mainly used to organise things and they all acted as equals meaning they all pitched in and the piles of paperwork were fairly similar sizes, a task they all hated with a passion and avoided as much as possible. The other two members of the team were Daniel Sanderson, known as Danny, and James Jenkins or JJ as he became known.

They were quite a mismatched team to look at with Lucy's medium length curly blonde hair and Cat's fiery red shoulder length curly hair. Danny had dark brown spiked up hair whilst JJ had brown hair that was only slightly lighter than Danny's. It was worrying looking at the two together. Despite being unrelated, they could easily be passed off as brothers and the identical mischievous grins that were seen on their faces often had people ducking for cover before the impending mayhem occurred but their dimpled smiles got them out of too much trouble especially from Lucy and Cat. The girls looked much more innocent and angelic but they caused almost as much mischief as the guys.

Both guys were a bit taller and more muscular than Lucy and Cat, making them look small and weak in comparison but looks were deceptive. Both could hold their own and often beat the boys in a fight and were both proud of the fact that they could judo flip Danny and JJ.

Although they had all worn their police uniform to the scene and worn it sometimes in the office, they were part of a special team and so had slightly different rules. They generally wore smart business like clothes most days but still making sure they were practical. They also had days when they were just dressed in casual clothes and the relaxed dress rules were comfortable for them as they weren't happy when forced into starchy uniforms and smart suits and outfits. The uniforms were brought out for scenes and special events however much to Danny and JJ's disgust.

They may be odd but they were so close to each other that they seemed inseparable. The higher ups had tried to separate them but they had caused so much havoc that no one would take them but Captain Lucas. He was somewhat like a father figure to the four and Danny had affectionately started calling him M, Danny being obsessed with James Bond, and it stuck. They also called him dad occasionally, especially when he was telling them off. They were like one big crazy dysfunctional family.

**For Lucy google hellcats marti and that is what I imagine her to look like with slightly longer hair. Cat looks like Black widow in the first avengers movie but with hair longer like Lucy's. Danny looks like Josh Hutcherson with dark hair with the front spiked up and JJ looks like Nick Robinson with brown hair. The picture accompanying the story is my imagination of the team but with Cat having longer hair. Clockwise from top left they are Cat then JJ then Lucy and finally Danny.**

**This is unbeta'd so I apologise for all the mistakes.**


	3. In the Precinct

**Sorry it's been so long, the first two chapters didn't get that good of a response so I wasn't sure whether to carry on but I like it too much to give up.**

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><p>When the quartet got back to the offices they were greeted cheerfully by all the officers there. Despite them technically being senior to most of the other officers, excluding Captain Lucas, they all got on well and the team treated them like their equals which helped ease the differences. The other officers loved the fact that the more senior officers got involved in all the mayhem of the precinct and it helped to make everyone more approachable.<p>

Cat actually had lots of friends within the precinct with whom she loved to plot to get one over on the boys but also just to have a chat with and relax with after the horrific scenes they saw. She also often had a very valuable input on different crimes thanks to her past and there were many requests on answering phones for her to visit a certain part of the precinct to look over case files and give her input into the case. In fact, all four were often called upon by other teams and ended up splitting off to go and help others but they were all at their happiest when they were working together.

Back in the precinct, they headed over to their office, leaving the door open behind them and the first thing they did was move their board over so that anyone looking into their office could only see the back of it. There was a reason they were a senior team and worked these kinds of cases. They all had pasts that specialised them to this team and they had all seen too much. That meant that they would do everything in their power to protect the remains of the innocence of the officers they worked with.

After they had moved the board, they got down to work with all the bits of paper and photos they had so far, drawing out a timeline at the top and pinning up the few photos they had. Until they got a time of death from the ME and some identification, they didn't have much to go on but they weren't complaining, they'd had much less many times before and they had the arrest record to prove that they had still caught the criminals.

Footsteps were heard approaching and four head shot up to look at the person who was approaching. They all relaxed when they saw that it was the Captain. He had seen a lot of things in his time and he was their boss so they weren't too worried about stopping him from seeing.

"You guys just got back?" the Captain asked.

"Yep. We have some theories and agree on what we think happened. We are waiting on the CSI's evidence and the ME's report 'cause we don't have much to go on now but we have a few ideas that we may run down," Lucy replied.

Captain Lucas nodded and scanned their board to check what they had. The board was their own personalised one that was to their own specifications. It was mainly a whiteboard spanning the top and middle, with two detachable sides that were corkboard. The bottom of the board was a board with ribbon pinned in that bits of paper and information could be tucked in. The whole thing was massive and took up a big chunk of the space in their room. The team also had a massive selection of stationary that included a rainbow array of whiteboard pens, coloured tacks and pins and post it notes. They were obsessed with colour and fun, trying to offset the depressing job they did.

Captain Lucas and the rest of the precinct always took the time to tease them about their colourful board and tell them to stop wasting time but they could actually see the advantages of it and many were jealous of the extensive colours and variety. Many others had secretly started to copy the technique much to the amusement of the four (nothing got past them easily) and the captain. He had been less amused when the team and the rest of the precinct teamed up and covered his entire office in post it notes including all his walls and windows and all of the furniture. He was then even less impressed when his car was found to be covered in the same damned things. He took it all in good humour and waited to get his revenge,

While they had been talking, junior officers had been sneaking around behind the captain's back, in and out of his office, and had been lacking subtlety completely. Cat would really have to get around to giving them another lesson in being subtle and not looking glaringly obvious when they were doing something they shouldn't.

The captain informed them to let him know if anything came up and wandered out of their office towards his own, giving the officers suspicious looks as he passed them. The four agents, all having noticed something going on, followed the captain out on their wheelie chairs so they were all looking out their door in a staggered line. They would have looked very funny to anyone watching but all attention was no on the captain as they watched him go suspiciously into his office. He checked everything before giving up and plonking himself heavily down on his chair.

There was a brief moment when Cat recognised the change of emotion to excitement and knew something was going to happen, JJ had produced a video camera from somewhere and was filming and Lucy and Danny appeared to be trying to shuffle closer inconspicuously and were failing. Suddenly there was a priceless look of horror and shock all over Captain Lucas' face and then he was falling backwards his feet replacing his face above his desk. Laughter shook the office as they watched their boss attempt to find a dignified way to get up off the floor and fail completely.

When he had finally dragged himself out of his collapsed, upended chair and out of his office, he gave the snickering perpetrators a playful glare and then ordered that they fix it 'cause he hadn't a clue what they had done. He gave the four a conspiratorial wink as he passed to leave and get some coffee. He knew exactly what they had done but the uplift it gave the officers to think they had gotten one over on their captain was massive.

The quartet shuffled back with less dignity than they slid out with, sort of an uncomfortable and awkward shuffle that was very amusing to watch, and shut the doors behind them, the discussion that they had to have was one that they didn't want anyone else hearing.

When they were all situated comfortably around their large circular table in their normal places, Lucy began.

"Right guys, we haven't got much on this one so let's get down what we know and see if we can't come up with a strategy to catch this sick and twisted son of a ..."

Danny looked down at the notes he had in front of him and spoke.

"The scene was discovered at 5am this morning by the paper boy who was taking a shortcut through that neighbourhood so he wouldn't be late again. Poor kid didn't call it in for a few minutes as he was emptying the contents of his stomach into someone's front garden but after that he stayed to give a statement and then was sent home to his parents and given the name of a councillor. Kid will probably need that."

"No security cameras in the alley or the surrounding area unsurprisingly but we've got the footage from the nearest traffic cameras to comb through and hopefully something will pop. The CSI's from CSU said they will put a rush on the evidence for us so hopefully we will know anything new as sson as they do. I followed a track of partial footprints I blood that tailed off at the curb at the end of the street suggesting the perp changed from on foot to car. The tire tracks left in the mud should come back will some info for us," JJ added on.

Cat sat back and thought about it carefully.

"One person doing the killing I think given the lack of gaps in the blood spatter. If there were many other people there, there would have been outlines. As it is there are a few which could give us an indication of shortest height, if I had to estimate based on what I saw, I'd say over six feet, and CSU will be able to get something on the direction and angles of blood spatter that could indicate positions of the victims and attacker. There were too many mistakes for it to be a professional job and the mob are rarely that subtle, they don't tend to obliterate the evidence like that, they want it to be linked to them and that just doesn't have the markings of it and there has been no recent mob activity so it's not likely. That amount of blood and the mutilation suggests it was personal and fuelled by some kind of anger or jealousy. That ties in with the mistakes, they were too wound up to think clearly about those kinds of things, but professionals never kill like that and don't leave that much evidence. The killer had some knowledge and ability; there were mistakes but not that many suggesting they knew what they were doing. Not definite as there may be others but maybe someone with hunting experience or a butcher or someone else who does something similar. I can write up some lists and ideas if you want Luce."

Lucy nodded her ascent at that and, as if on cue her work phone rang and she picked up quickly with a "Yep."

She nodded a few times and then hung up abruptly.

"Cat, you're with me. Sam's got something for us. Boys, you head over to CSU and then check some footage and see if we can eliminate some of the times and narrow down our time window a bit to make it easier later when we have more to go on."

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><p><strong>Sorry, it's a bit of an in between chapter at the moment. I know where I want it to go but it's just getting around to it and stopping waffling that's giving me problems. I'm sort of going for a bit of humour but I'm keeping up the background story with the crime scene so I hope that doesn't put too many people off. I hope to get more out soon so bear with me. Please review if you like it and sorry for all the mistakes, it's unbeta'd.<strong>


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